Mario Kart 7 Sells 420,000 Units in Japan

Mario Kart 7 sold 420,000 copies since its first release, while the 3DS is close to selling 3 million units, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

Iwata noted that the 3DS has seen great momentum ever since the company lowered the price of the handheld back in August, while also explaining that one of the reasons for high hardware sales and low software sales was that gamers were preparing for upcoming game releases. Nintendo expects to sell four million units by the time its first anniversary of its release approaches.

Talking about Mario Kart 7, Iwata mentioned that it sold 420,000 units in its first week in Japan, while noting that they also expect similar success in North America and Europe. The holiday sales rush was mentioned as a driving factor behind the sales.

Iwata concluded by stating that while they are expecting a loss in the current fiscal year, they expect the next year to be one of recovery.

I'm with Shorty on this one. Nintendo has said and promised many things, but only part of those promises ever become a reality. Now, the lesson Nintendo SHOULD have learned from this is that they can't expect fans to pick up a piece of hardware at an expensive price without offering any software fans want to buy alongside it. Yeah, Nintendogs, Street Fighter IV, Pilotwings and Steel Diver may have been fun, but they are not games that make me want to spend over 300 dollars on. Not only that, a lot of the features were missing at launch as well. With the 3DS being at a lower price AND offering the games we want to play it comes to no surprise that fans are indeed buying it in droves.

With the Wii U, the price can't be above 300 dollars. Even if the hardware does warrant a high price, they can't make the same mistake as the 3DS. Then, they need noteworthy launch titles that will inspire people to make the investment earlier.

But knowing Nintendo they will likely do things their way, for better or for worse